Nozzles of flat spray type



Nov. 1, 1955 F. w. WAHLIN NOZZLES OF FLAT SPRAY TYPE Filed Jan. 2, 1952 UH]v um Hum] 564 w MW United States Patent N OZZLES OF FLAT SPRAY TYPE Fred W. Wahlin, Oak Park, Ill., assignor to Spraying Systems Co., Bellwood, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Application June 2, 1952, Serial No. 291,147

Claims. (Cl. 299-154) This invention relates to spray nozzles which are provided with an elognated narrow orifice for producing a flat fan shaped spray, and has reference more particularly to nozzles of that character which have the orifice recessed in the nozzle end to protect it against damage which might affect the accuracy of the spray pattern.

In such nozzles it is customary to provide the nozzle body, or tip thereof, with a passage therein which leads outwardly to the orifice and has an outer end, generally convex or somewhat dome shaped, in which the orifice is formed by cutting a relatively deep V-shaped groove across the end of the nozzle body or tip so that the extreme bottom portion of the groove is cut through and intersects the convex or dome shaped end of said passage and thereby produces the orifice opening.

In order to produce the long narrow orifice opening which is required to spray the liquid in the form of a flat shaped spray, the cutter must be quite narrow at the place where it cuts through the convex or dome shaped end of the passage, and accordingly it has been customary to make the deep V-shaped groove with a V-shaped cutter which is quite acutely angled so that the cutting extremity thereof, which forms the orifice opening, is sufliciently narrow to cut an orifice opening of the required narrow width.

By reason of the depth of the V-shaped groove, walls project outwardly a substantial distance at opposite sides of the orifice which serve to protect the orifice against damage, the inner faces of which said walls are acutely disposed to one another at an acute angularity corresponding to that of the V-shape of the cutter which forms the orifice.

The liquid has some tendency to spread as it issues from the orifice at the bottom of the groove, this being a common tendency of liquid when it is forcedthrough a restricted opening, and as the opposite sides of the V-shaped groove diverge gradually and uniformly in the direction of spray discharge, the issuing liquid tends to hug the opposite side faces of the groove and cause distortion of the spray shape. Moreover undesirable condensation and dripping of liquid from the nozzle occurs by reason of the proximity of these walls along the stream.

In my co-pending application Serial No. 81,288, filed March 14, 1949, now Patent No. 2,621,078, of which this present application is a continuation in part, a relatively wide groove with rounded bottom was provided having a relatively narrow V-shaped groove of little depth at the bottom thereof to form the spray orifice, this narrow groove being disposed midway between the sides of and extending lengthwise of the large rounded bottom groove, so that immediately beyond the place where the liquid emerges from the exterior of the nozzle, the groove is abruptly widened so that the opposite side walls thereof extend abruptly away from the sides of the issuing stream, thereby providing immediate and abrupt take off for the stream so that it is free to retain the shape imparted to it by the orifice and without any distortion thereof or condensation and dripping that might be occasioned by proximity thereto of the side walls of the protective recess or groove.

The principle of the present invention is the same as that of my above mentioned co-pending application, and accordingly the nozzle hereof is provided with a protective groove or recess extending across the nozzle end or tip and having at the bottom thereof the acutely angled V-shaped groove formation which is cut through and intersects the outer end of the nozzle passage to form the spray orifice.

The side walls of the protecting groove, however, which are arranged to free the issuing stream from the above distortion, condensation and dripping effects, are of specific shapes other than those illustrated in said co-pending application and instead have their opposite inner faces increasingly flared away from the sides of the stream or sloped outwardly at a wide angle to one another to free the stream, immediately upon issuance thereof from the orifice, from any influence or effect thereon by the side walls of the protective recess.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide nozzles of flat fan shaped spray type with an orifice protecting recess or groove having the side wall thereof shaped and arranged so they do not detrimentally affect the operation of the nozzle or the shape of the issuing stream, this object being accomplished as further explained hereinafter and as shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. l is a side view of a spray nozzle which is provided with an orifice protecting groove in accordance with this invention the lower end portion of the nozzle being broken away;

Fig. 2 is a top or discharge end view of the nozzle of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the nozzle of Fig. 1, taken on the line 33 thereof and showing the full length thereof;

Fig. 4 is an enlarged sectional view of the nozzle tip of the nozzle of Fig. 1, taken on the line 44 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view of a nozzle tip like that of Fig. 3 but showing a modification thereof;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view similar to that of Fig. 4 but showing an orifice protecting groove of another cross sectional shape; and

Fig. 7 is an exterior side view of the nozzle tip of Fig. 6.

Referring to the drawing, the nozzle illustrated therein is composed of a body 10 having a large cylindrical opening 11 therethrough, a flat sided nozzle tip 12 which is made as a separate part and secured to the outer end of the body 10, a strainer 13 in the cylindrical opening 11 of the body and having an annular flange 14 at the outer end thereof interposed between the nozzle tip 12 and the outer end of the body 10, and a clamping member 15 by which the nozzle tip 12 is secured to the body 10.

The body 10 is internally threaded at 16 at its end remote from the tip 12 for connection to a pipe or other means through which liquid is supplied to the nozzle and the other end of the body is externally threaded at 17 for threaded connection therewith of the clamping member 15 which is of collar nut type with the outer end of the collar turned in as at 15a to engage over an annular flange 18 at the base of the nozzle tip for clamping the latter against the outer end of the strainer 13 and the strainer flange 14 against the outer end of the nozzle body. The clamping member 15 and body 10 each have a portion of the length thereof of external hexagonal form as indicated at 19 and 20 respectively, or of other suitable form for wrench engagement for conveniently securing the parts together.

The illustrated strainer 13 has a hollow cylindrical body 21 surrounded by a cylindrical screen 22 which is secured thereon by a screw 23 which is threaded into the lower end of the strainer body 21 and has a large head against which the lower end of the screen 22 abuts. The strainer body 21 has a series of transverse slots 24 through its wall, preferably at several places therearound, for example at diametrically opposed sides thereof, so that the liquid introduced through the lower end of the nozzle passes through the screen into the interior of the strainer body 21, and the body 21 in the vicinity of said slots preferably is turned down to a size smaller than the interior of the screen 22 but with annular screen contacting ribs 25 left at suitable intervals, so as to allow free flow of liquid through a considerable area of the screen to the slots 24.

The nozzle tip 12 has a bored out cavity 26 communicating with the interior of the strainer body 21 and leading to a relatively small diameter bore 27 with convex or dome shaped outer end 28 through which the spray orifice 29 is formed.

The orifice 29 is recessed in the end of the nozzle at the bottom of a channel or groove 30 which extends in a direction across the nozzle end and at its bottom cuts through and intersects the dome shaped outer end 28 of the bore or passage 27, as indicated at 31 in Fig. 4, to form the orifice opening 29 the bottom of the groove or channel 30 at the place where it cuts through and intersects the outer end of the bore or passage 27 being very narrow so as to provide a long narrow orifice.

It is an important feature of the present invention that the opposed inner faces of the channel or groove 30 diverge from one another abruptly or in a pronounced manner from the orifice opening 29 or from a place immediately adjacent thereto so that as the stream issues from the orifice it is freed of any tendency to hug the side walls of the groove 30.

This may be accomplished by curving or rounding the opposite side faces of the groove 30 abruptly outward from the orifice 29, as indicated at 33 in Figs. 1 and 4, or by sloping the opposed side faces of the groove 30 at a wide angle to one another from a point immediately adjacent the orifice opening 29 as indicated at 34 in Figs. 6 and 7.

The groove 30, whether with curved side walls 33 or wide angled side walls 34, is open at its opposite ends for free entrance of air endwise into the groove to counteract or relieve the aspiration efiect occasioned by the issuing stream, and for this purpose the protective groove 30 of the Fig. 4 curved side wall shape or of the Fig. 6 wide angled side wall shape may be continued across the nozzle end or tip from side to side thereof as indicated in Fig. 5.

Preferably, however, the groove 30 is provided at or immediately beyond the opposite extremities of the orifice 29 with oppositely sloped grooves 35, which, as indicated in Fig. 3 slope rearwardly and outwardly from the orifice extremity so that the air drawn in by the aspiration effect of the issuing stream not only fiows inwardy toward the base of the issuing stream but has movement imparted thereto outwardly in the direction of flow of the stream from the orifice 29, this outwardly imparted direction of air flow being particularly advantageous as it permits the stream to leave the nozzle more freely and avoids air eddies at the base of the issuing stream which tend to disturb the tranquility of stream flow and impart raggedness thereto.

This construction of the nozzle end or tip with oppositely sloped grooves 35 is also advantageous as the sloping grooves 35 may be, and preferably are provided before cutting the groove which forms the orifice opening 29, and by providing the sloping grooves 35 previously, only a very small amount of stock is left to be cut through to form the orifice opening.

This is important as the cutting of the groove which forms the orifice opening is an operation of high precision and accuracy requiring a particularly sharp cutter and by thus minimizing the amount of stock to be cut through in this operation greater accuracy is assured and a great many more orifice groove cutting operations may be performed without sharpening or changing the cutter.

Preferably the sloping grooves 35 are of rounded bottom shape, as shown in Fig. 1, which are made by an ordinary rounded edge cutter although the sloping grooves 35 may be of the same cross sectional shape as the central portion 30 which as above explained may have rounded side walls as shown at 33 in Fig. 4 or wide angled side walls as shown at 34 in Figs. 6 and 7, the latter of which, for purposes of illustration, shows the sloping groove, which is indicated at 35a of the same cross sectional form as the center portion 30.

The cutter which produces the groove 30, if desired, may have the extremity formed as indicated by dotted lines at 36 in Fig. 4, to cut through the outer end of the nozzle passage 27 and form the orifice 29 at the same time that the orifice protective groove 30 is formed, but it is preferred to first form the orifice protecting groove 30 with a cutter of suitable shape, and thereafter by using another cutter, such as indicated at 37 in Fig. 6, to cut in the bottom of the already cut groove 30 the small narrow groove which forms the orifice opening 29.

While I have shown and described my invention in preferred forms, I am aware that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention, the scope of which is to be determined by the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A spray nozzle of the class described having at the discharge end thereof a pair of forwardly extending projections separated from one another by an external groove which extends from side to side of the nozzle and has an entrance thereto at each end through the respective side of the nozzle from the exterior thereof, said nozzle having a passage in the interior thereof which is intersected by the bottom portion of said groove and formed at the intersection with an elongated fan shaped spray producing orifice which is at the bottom of and central of the width of and extends lengthwise of said groove, the portion of said groove along said orifice being narrow and sharply angled in cross section with narrow included angle between the opposite sides thereof at the bottom where it intersects said passage and wide and widely angled in cross section with wide included angle between the opposite sides thereof at the top and having the opposite sides thereof converging from the said wide angled top to the said sharply angled bottom, a minor portion only of the depth of said groove being sharply angled as aforesaid and the major portion of the depth thereof being widely angled as aforesaid, and the said projections being extended forwardly beyond said orifice a distance greatly exceeding the maximum width of the orifice.

2. A spray nozzle of the class described having at the discharge end thereof a pair of forwardly extending projections separated from one another by an external groove which extends from side to side of the nozzle and has an entrance thereto at each end through the respective side of the nozzle from the exterior thereof, said nozzle having a passage in the interior thereof which is intersected by the bottom portion of said groove and formed at the intersection with an elongated fan shaped spray producing orifice which is at the bottom of and central of the width of and extends lengthwise of said groove, the portion of said groove along said orifice being narrow and sharply angled in cross section with narrow included angle between the opposite sides thereof at the bottom where it intersects said passage and widely angled in cross section therebeyond, with wide included angle between the opposite sides thereof, a minor portion only of the depth of said groove being sharply angled as aforesaid and the major portion of the depth thereof being widely angled as aforesaid, and the said projections being extended forwardly beyond said orifice a distance greatly exceeding the maximum widthof the orifice.

3. A spray nozzle of the class described having at the discharge end thereof a pair of forwardly extending projections separated from one another by an external groove which extends from side to side of the nozzle and has an entrance thereto at each end through the respective side of the nozzle from the exterior thereof, said nozzle having a passage in the interior thereof which is intersected by the bottom portion of said groove and formed at the intersection with an elongated fan shaped spray producing orifice which is at the bottom of and central of the width of and extends lengthwise of said groove, the portion of said groove along said orifice being narrow and sharply angled in cross section with narrow included angle between the opposite sides thereof at the bottom where it intersects said passage and wide and widely angled in cross section with wide included angle between the opposite sides thereof at the top and having the opposite sides thereof convex and converging from the said wide angled top to the said sharply angled bottom, a minor portion only of the depth of said groove being sharply angled as aforesaid and the major portion of the depth thereof being widely angled as aforesaid, and the said projections being extended forwardly beyond said orifice a distance greatly exceeding the maximum width of the orifice.

4. A spray nozzle of the class described having at the discharge end thereof a pair of forwardly extending projections separated from one another by an external groove which extends from side to side of the nozzle and has an entrance thereto at each end through the respective side of the nozzle from the exterior thereof, said nozzle having a passage in the interior thereof which is intersected by the bottom portion of said groove and formed at the intersection with an elongated fan shaped spray producing orifice which is at the bottom of and central of the width of and extends lengthwise of said groove, the portion of said groove along said orifice being narrow and sharply angled in cross section with narrow included angle between the opposite sides thereof at the bottom where it intersects said passage and wide and widely angled in cross section with wide included angle between the opposite sides thereof at the top and having the opposite sides thereof converging from the said wide angled top to the said sharply angled bottom, a minor portion only of the depth of said groove being sharply angled as aforesaid and the major portion of the depth thereof being widely angled as aforesaid, and the said projections being extended forwardly beyond said orifice a distance greatly exceeding the maximum width of the orifice, the opposite end portions of said groove being increased in depth immediately beyond the respective ends of the orifice to the respective entrance ends of the groove and the entrances to said entrance ends being extended rearwardly to a place rearwardly remote from the plane of the orifice.

5. A spray nozzle of the class described having at the discharge end thereof a pair of forwardly extending projections separated from one another by an external groove which extends from side to side of the nozzle and has an entrance thereto at each end through the respective side of the nozzle from the exterior thereof, said nozzle having a passage in the interior thereof which is intersected by the bottom portion of said groove and formed at the intersection with an elongated fan shaped spray producing orifice which is at the bottom of and central of the width of and extends lengthwise of said groove, the portion of said groove along said orifice being narrow and sharply angled in cross section with narrow included angle between the opposite sides thereof at the bottom where it intersects said passage and wide and widely angled in cross section with wide included angle between the opposite sides thereof at the top and having the opposite sides thereof converging from the said wide angled top to the said sharply angled bottom, a minor port-ion only of the depth of said groove being sharply angled as aforesaid and the major portion of the depth thereof being widely angled as aforesaid, and the said projections being extended forwardly beyond said orifice a distance greatly exceeding the maximum width of the orifice, the opposite end portions of said groove being increased in depth immediately beyond the respective ends of the orifice to the respective entrance ends of the groove and the entrances to said entrance ends being extended rearwardly to a place rearwardly remote from the plane of the orifice and said opposite end portions having the said passage and the orifice interposed therebetween.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS D. 134,562 Murphy Dec. 15, 1942 1,813,733 Freeman July 7, 1931 1,889,201 Holveck Nov. 29, 1932 1,972,001 Witham Aug. 28, 1934 2,125,445 Holveck Aug. 2, 1938 2,522,928 Carroll Sept. 19, 1950 2,563,152 Brandt Aug. 7, 1951 2,621,078 Wahlin Dec. 9, 1952 2,641,509 Yost June 9, 1953 

